Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 504 --Where do you start??

We have 2 Developmental Optometrists who are ready to advocate that our son needs a 504 for his vision issues (Convergence Insufficiency, poor eye teaming skills/exophoria, poor focusing ability/accommodative insufficiency, and oculomotor delays). Both noted gross and fine motor delays and retained primitive reflexes as well of motor planning issues.

We also have diagnoses of ADHD and an Anxiety disorder with our Neuro Psychiatrist who would work with us on a 504 as well. We will be getting an OT eval for sensory issues and the above mentioned delays later this month. Our DS is 6 and will be taking accelerated curriculum based on his readiness for new material in the Fall which is a first for his school and is being done as a bit of a test case.

So I keep hearing he NEEDS a 504.... but how do I start this and can I put the wheels in motion in the summer before school starts? Where can I read more about the process? I searched here and couldn't find what I was looking for.

The first place I'd look is your school district's website - chances are it will include a bit of information about how you initiate the process locally - which is important info. I'd also look at www.wrightslaw.org - it's a great source of info. You can also look on the "yellow pages" link at the wrightslaw website to see if there are any parent advocate groups in our area/state. If there is one, I'd suggest a quick call to them - our local parent advocate was *extremely* helpful to me when advocating for accommodations/etc for our ds - they were able to quickly answer questions like you've asked here, and they knew all the *local* ins and outs, which can be very important!

The other thing to do is to be thinking through what you see as your ds' needs and gathering together all the resouces/data you have so that when you have a 504 meeting with the district - you'll be ready. One warning though - where we live the chances of getting anything together in the summer (before school starts up again) when you are starting from the beginning, are basically zero. Don't let that discourage you though! If you have your paperwork together and your formal request (in writing) in to the district before school staff is back at the beginning of the year, chances are you will get a meeting as quickly as possible

Good luck with it! I also answered this in a bit of a hurry, so if you have more specific questions, please feel free to ask!

polarbear

Thanks Polar! It's confusing to me because no description I read sounds like a clear step by step process. Our district says you should contact the principal who will put you in touch with the building coordinator who will contact you to fill out a referral form... and from there it is "if this then this", "if deemed necessary", if if if... I don't like muddled systems like that because it leaves me always wondering if he qualifies, if I have the right documentation, if they are going to ask questions out of what I thought the scope was. It leaves an open door for intimidation. So far things are great with working with school but the policy itself is so vague that I was hoping there was a clearer path.

I know it sounds confusing but - fwiw - I think that what you have from your district's explanation *is* a somewhat clear roadmap - for example:


Your first step is to wite a brief request in writing to the Principal requesting a 504 meeting for your ds. The wrightslaw book "From Emotions to Advocacy" contains really good examples of how to write letters like this to the school - or you can also ask an advocate what to say if you have access to an advocate. We usually used our advocate's advice on this since she knew the ins and outs of our local schools, and for a beginning request like this, she recommended *very* brief and to-the-point. You don't need to go into the details of why your ds needs a 504 plan, other than briefly stating what his disability is.


This sounds like our district - there is one point person on staff at each school building who is responsible for administering the 504 plans at that building. In our district it is typically the Vice Principal in the elementary schools, but not always. All this part of the step means is - the district wants you to make the request through the principal, but the principal isn't the person who's actually going to be overseeing the process and isn't the person who will attend the 504 meetings - the "building coordinator" will be that person.


Our district also has a form to fill out - it's simple and just asks for the information you have and accommodations you think your child needs etc - it isn't the final 504 plan document, so you can't "goof up" by forgetting to put something on the form etc - this is simply the form that you fill out to initiate the process of the 504 team meeting to determine if your child needs a 504 plan.


Any and all of this could happen - and really, mostly it's not unreasonable - it makes sense for the school to review the request, take a look at what your child's needs are, and base decisions on that. Your best approach to get you through anything that comes up is to have all your documentation in order, to think through ahead of time what accommodations your ds needs, to put together examples of school work or documentation behaviors or whatever is necessary to provide examples of why the accommodations are necessary and why they work. Be polite but firm if a question is raised by the school re whether or not an accommodation is necessary. Restate, reiterate during meetings if things get off track. It might be tough, or it might not. The bottom line is you have a straightforward request, it's not really complicated, so don't let the fact that you need to go through the step of advocating for it intimidate you.


Really, I think this is a "clear" path - the thing that's not "clear" perhaps is you can't know until you go through it if the school will agree with what you are asking for. And some of it might actually be a lot quicker and clearer than you realize now, but you won't see that until you initiate the process.

Best wishes,

polarbear